Mountains
During the Spring Festival period, for several days in a row, the town rang with the deafening sounds of gongs and drums. Dragon and lion dance troupes wound through the streets and alleys, followed by teams on stilts. The Wuchang Gods’ procession came at the very end, bringing up the rear and serving as the grand finale. Tall horses clopped and stamped along, as though a costume drama had stepped into reality.
Children gathered along both sides of the street, clapping and laughing noisily. The adults followed behind, urging them to stand farther away so they would not get hit by exploding firecrackers.
It was not until the final day’s celebrations had ended that the streets finally settled down. The people cleaning up slowly swept away the ribbons and scraps of paper scattered across the road.
“Go on up.” On this day, when the little town had returned to peace and all was utterly silent, Great-Grandma Chen patted Zhuyu’s hand. “Go.”
She mounted the horse, loosened the reins, and let it set off along the gentle mountain path. Zhuyu knew how to ride. Her school offered equestrian classes. But she had not practiced in a long time, and she was somewhat rusty.
You have to ride there. Once you get there, you’ll know why. You absolutely have to ride there.
Great-Grandma Chen’s insistence left the others rather baffled. It was as though she were staging some grand drama about Mu Guiying going off to war, and the soldiers had to be on horseback. Whether the old woman’s mind was still clear or not, even her own family could not say for certain. In recent years, she could barely see or hear, and was muddled most of the time. At home, she sat in the courtyard from morning to night soaking up the sun, with a little radio playing beside her. The story of Mu Guiying Taking Command of the Army played from morning to night, too.
Even Great-Grandpa Chen advised the Sheng family not to listen to his elderly mother. The old lady was obviously senile, he said. Nothing she said could be taken seriously.
The only person who supported Zhuyu riding the horse up the mountain was Sizhao’s younger brother. He said he believed in the old woman’s theory. The Han regions have their own customs, and every place has its own gods.
She was not sure where she was supposed to go, where she ought to stop, or whom she was supposed to speak to once she got there. The horse walked very slowly, sometimes moving, sometimes stopping to nibble at the grass by the roadside.
The air in the mountains today was cold and clean. Even though the sun had come out, its light was faint, bringing no warmth and doing nothing to dispel the chill.
Is it time now? Can I speak to them yet?
She was somewhat at a loss. This aimless performance was very likely something the old lady had come up with after developing dementia. Zhuyu wanted to believe it was a definite solution, but she did not know how to enter the role. All she could do was circle around the outside of the stage, again and again.
The afternoon passed quickly. She had already made a full circuit around the mountain forest, and the sky was beginning to darken.
Then the wind picked up.
Judging by winter’s usual rhythm, the sky would be completely dark within half an hour.
At last, she stopped at the highest point of the mountain and spoke as softly as though she were whispering to a lover.
“Sizhao, it’s already January. You’ve been asleep for such a long time.”
“You said I should stay here for another six months. Six months is half a year. One month has already passed, so there are five months left.” Zhuyu smiled. “Time goes by so fast, doesn’t it?”
“For the time I have left, maybe I’ll have to spend it alone. Before I met you, I spent many years on my own. Back then, I rarely felt lonely or alone. But it’s strange. After you came close to me and then left me, I felt as though I were missing a part of myself, a very, very important part. Just like that, pa, it suddenly disappeared.”
“This is probably the most clichéd thing there is, the classic hallmark of what people call love, right? ‘I can’t leave you. I can’t imagine being apart from you.’ People feel a heart-rending sadness when they break up. They always say things like that. Now I’ve had that clichéd experience too.
“Now I’m feeling a kind of pain I can’t bear.
“If only we could have gone through an ordinary breakup, like ordinary people. You fell in love with someone else, or I fell in love with someone else. That would have been a hundred times better than this.
“To be parted from the person I love by death, I drew such a cruel devil’s lot.
“Why does everyone else get to have a normal ending to their relationships, while the two of us have to be this unlucky? Doesn’t it make you feel wronged? It’s so unfair, isn’t it?”
She smiled as she wiped away a tear, then repeated softly, “It’s so unfair.”
“We can’t let that malicious god have his way…” Zhuyu reached a hand out into the empty air. “I’m giving you my hand. Come here. I’ll wait for you, and we’ll go down the mountain together.”
It was completely dark now, and the wind had begun to blow. She stubbornly stood there, waiting.
“You’ve been wandering outside for so long. Are you tired? Come here. Walk slowly. I’ll keep standing here and waiting for you.”
She opened her arms and closed her eyes. After a while, she opened them again. She desperately wanted everything Great-Grandma Chen had described to be real, for there to be an invisible world hidden within the mountains.
There was nothing before her.
“Do you remember that promise? No matter what happens, I’ll always stand on your side. I made that oath with such confidence, but I’ve never once been able to fulfill it for you. And yet you’ve done so much for me, again and again. You protected me, took care of me, and saved me when I was in danger.
“Now I’m your soldier. I’m your guard.”
After the strong wind came fine snow. Her hands and face had long since been frozen red by the cold wind. Suddenly, the horse grew restless. It spun around in place, then ran forward, and Zhuyu broke into a little run alongside it.
She stopped in an open patch of ground. There were deep pits in the earth and piles of stones. The trees around it had been cut down until they were completely bare. Unlike the trees in an orchard, whose roots would be carefully wrapped before they were dug up and moved elsewhere, the trees here were already dead.
Zhuyu suddenly understood.
She remembered what this place was.
More than ten years ago, some part of this mountain had been developed by people. They had blasted open the earth with explosives in search of coal buried deep underground.
Ah.
This was the place.
They must be waiting here for her now.
While chasing after the horse, she fell, scraping her palm until it bled a little.
“Sizhao isn’t a bad person. He’s done many good things. He’s always been making amends. I can testify for him.”
Snow pellets struck her face. She stumbled as she pulled herself back up, trembling as she muttered, “Don’t scare me. I’m not leaving.”
“No matter how heavy the wind and snow get, I’m not afraid. It’s only snow. I’m not afraid of the dark either. I’m not afraid of anything…
“You’re all in the mountains. You must have seen what he did. Did you see it? Did you?”
Zhuyu, still mounted on the horse, called out in every direction.
“If someone takes on a debt because of the people dearest and most beloved to them, there’s nothing to argue about. If he owes it, then he owes it. But the gods in heaven should care about justice. One life for one life, one debt for one debt. What belongs to him is his. What does not belong to him, don’t make him pay for it.”
That day, Sizhao had a dream. He dreamed that he was walking through the deep mountains, dressed all in white, moving barefoot. He walked through the mountains, forgetting the passage of time, even forgetting who he was, not knowing where he was going.
The mist had not yet cleared, and the road he needed to walk had not yet come to an end. This was the vague fragment of consciousness that remained within him.
Then he heard a woman’s voice. She was shouting something loudly, but he could not make out what she was saying. Her voice was drowned out.
The mountains and fields were filled with soldiers in armor, mounted on fine horses. They had come from ancient times, wearing masks, standing solemnly in place. Thousands upon thousands of soldiers looked down upon a small patch of ground.
They were waiting for the command.
Two women sat astride their horses, standing face-to-face. One was restless and uneasy, an unyielding determination hidden in her expression. The other wore a blue-green mask like an evil spirit and was dressed in a purple robe. She stood in silence.
The restless woman took something from the bag hanging beside her horse. It was a red mask.
Then she put it on.
The two female generals took up their positions, about to engage in battle before the armies.
The female general in the blue-green mask raised the long spear in her right hand, holding it level with both hands. As for the female general in the red mask, all she had in her right hand was a long branch of plum blossoms, covered in pale yellow flowers.
The thousands upon thousands of soldiers in the mountains and wilderness were the troops of the purple-armored female general. They called out in support of their general, roaring at the tops of their voices:
“Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”
A fierce wind rose from the ground, sweeping snow pellets through the air.
The female general in the red mask stood alone. Not a single person called out for her. Her back was so lonely that Sizhao could not help but stare at her for a long time.
In that instant, it was as though he remembered something.
Long ago, there seemed to have been someone who told him that she would always stand behind him.
That she would fight for him.
The horses reared and whinnied. The two fine horses charged straight ahead. The female general wielding the long spear would easily knock the woman opposite her from her horse, sealing her throat with a single thrust.
The woman holding the plum branch had no weapon at all. If a branch covered in pale yellow plum blossoms could be considered a weapon, then that was all she had.
Don’t go, Zhuyu. Get down the mountain, quickly.
The tip of the spear flashed with cold light. With all the strength of its wielder, the spear thrust forward.
The two female generals crossed paths with the lightness of butterflies beating their wings. In an instant, it was over.
Yet after they passed one another, no one fell from their horse.
The woman who should have been struck by the spear was completely unharmed.
Zhuyu came to a halt in the midst of the fierce wind for a moment. She dismounted, raised the plum branch high above her head, and said in a clear voice:
“God of the mountain, I am the master of Sun Mountain. In my own name, I swear this oath to you. Liu Sizhao has already cleared himself of his guilt. He is a good man with a kind heart.”
She bent down and gently placed the plum branch on the snow.
This was the promise she offered to the mountain god.
She had done everything she could.
Zhuyu stood where she was, waiting in the empty snowfall for a miracle to happen, waiting for Sizhao to appear before her eyes. All she could see was this mortal world, nothing but wind, snow, withered branches, and fallen leaves.
During the long wait, a little muntjac emerged from behind a tree.
It had a damp little nose and large black eyes. Compared with before, it had grown a little bigger.
The little muntjac came closer and sniffed around the plum branch. Then it lay down in the snow, innocently watching Zhuyu as she waited there.
“Are you all right?”
Zhuyu crouched down and gently stroked the little animal’s soft fur.
She knew that this was the little creature she had held in her arms and run with that day, the young one Sizhao had desperately fought to save.
The little muntjac could not understand human speech. It lowered its head and, as though playing, nibbled at the fragrant plum branch, leaving a tiny little stick on the ground.
“That day, we both lost someone very important, someone very, very dear to us…”
She held back the tears in her eyes.
“I miss him so much. Do you miss him too?”
The purple-robed female general no longer scrutinized the only opponent she had encountered in hundreds of years. She raised her whip and urged her horse forward, disappearing into the depths of the mountain forest.
The thousands upon thousands of soldiers followed close behind her. The thunderous sound of their hooves rolled like thunder, and within moments, they had all departed.
The snow-covered ground fell silent.
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